There is an increased use of computing devices and other devices that generate ever-increasing amounts of data. Every time data is generated, it needs to be moved, stored, and processed to achieve the goal of creating it. Thus, the data is frequently shared between devices, and between components on the same device. Traditional device interconnections (both between devices and between components of the same device) are accomplished with electrical I/O (input/output) signaling. The performance of electrical I/O signaling is not keeping pace with the demand for performance increases in computing and data generating and/or consuming devices.
Photonic components find increasing use in computing devices, and can provide increases in performance for high speed data transfer. The optical interconnections are made via optical links between devices and/or components. One traditional drawback of optical signaling is that the optical components must be precisely configured to enable the link to function properly. Configuring the optical link has traditionally been performed by manual testing of the components that are part of the optical link. For example, the laser is traditionally tested for low-bit to high-bit performance, jitter specification compliance, and other performance indicators.
The testing is very time consuming and costly. Additionally, testing the individual components does not guarantee optimal performance of a complete link, given that there may be a mismatch among components which have all individually passed testing. Pre-configuring all components to guarantee worst-case interoperability wastes power in links with margin from higher power, better optical coupling, lower noise levels, or better performance. Training the optical link during link initialization or during data transmission guarantees acceptable performance while allowing for power savings in links with margin.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein.